Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Looking through the schedule sent by Wang Xuehong, the trip to Southeast Asia will have to wait until September at the earliest.

Because before that, he had to do at least one thing himself, and that was to send Zhuang Menghua to Harvard University.

Although this girl kept insisting that she didn't need it, she couldn't be ungrateful and disregard Mr. Zhuang's entrustment seriously, and the girl's family was in a different place, so all kinds of inconveniences were obvious, so I had to make arrangements for it.

It has to be said that as the chairman and president of Zerone, as well as the chief architect, Tang Huan is very busy with a lot of business and personal affairs. He feels that it is time to find a professional CEO with the help of a headhunting company.

Wang Xuehong also sent a summary report. Recently, many new competitors appeared in the personal computer word processing software market. In particular, several small orders of WordEasy were snatched away by the old rival WordStar with the strategy of low-price competition.

Now Zerone’s product sales method, in addition to the company’s own operation, Tang Huan also encouraged a large number of qualified students to use the summer vacation to go to various parts of the United States to sell. He even began to consider taking a break from school to concentrate on making money.

From this point of view, Tang Huan has done a lot of harm, but he is quite proud of the sales method he named Wolf Pack Tactics.

The situation in the report was reported by these students separately.

Tang Huan frowned. It seemed that WordStar, a dangerous competitor, had already started to fight with him, so he couldn't be careless.

WordStar was the overlord of the personal computer word processing software market in the 1980s. In the mainland of Longguo, this advantage can be more reflected. At that time, WordStar was synonymous with word processing, and dBase was synonymous with database. Sitong’s Chinese typewriter, Qiu Bojun’s WPS has learned a lot from WordStar.

Moreover, Seymour Rubinstein, who is now running WordStar, has very good business skills. So far, he has cheated two famous people, Kildare, the developer of CP/M, and Gates of Microsoft. Guy is a genius who teases a genius.

At that time, Rubinstein had not founded the current MicroPro company, but served as the software director of the Shazhai King IMSAI company.

In 1975, the Altair computer of MITS was sought after by the market, but the production capacity was extremely low. Many users could not get the product after paying the money. However, IMSAI, which was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the failure of its business strategy, saw the opportunity and quickly launched the By imitating the product, it grabbed a lot of orders from MITS, making users unable to tell the difference between the two computers.

Although it is a copycat in terms of hardware, IMSAI is at a disadvantage in terms of software, because MITS has Microsoft's BASIC language.

At that time, MITS and Microsoft formed a very close alliance. Microsoft was almost embedded in MITS. Director of Software at MITS. Even Gates got on the singing and dancing motorcade of MITS to cheer for the promotion of Altair.

Therefore, Millard, the boss of IMSAI, asked Rubinstein to solve the software problem. He only had one clear request, that is, I have what I have.

The wily Rubinstein didn't want to stick his neck out and get slaughtered, so he didn't go directly to Gates,

Instead, focus on the operating system first. He found Kildare, and took advantage of the mentality that his company urgently needed cash shortly after its opening, and obtained the right to use the CP/M operating system in batches at a price of US$25,000, instead of charging for each copy according to the number of copies.

Apparently, the deal was so lucrative that even Rubenstein told others afterward that it seemed like a steal.

Then, Rubinstein aimed at another young talent, Kildare's student Gordon Eubanks.

Eubanks developed a program similar to the BASIC language, although not as powerful as Microsoft's product, but it can also be used. Rubinstein approached him, paid him a computer and a printer, and obtained the right to use the program.

In this way, Rubinstein combined the software of Kildare and his disciples together, and successfully provided a superior software combination for IMSAI's copycat hardware at a small cost.

Rubinstein did not stop there. He let out the wind and wanted to use the market advantage of IMSAI computers to vigorously promote the Eubanks version of the BASIC language. The news, of course, quickly reached Microsoft.

Although Gates was young back then, his business strategy was very sophisticated. Compared with profit, he valued the market share of products more. IMSAI is naturally a big customer he strives for.

Rubinstein's shock made Gates anxious, so the rhythm of the subsequent business negotiations was in Rubinstein's hands.

After completing the deal negotiations with Gates, Rubinstein said proudly: Everything that can be moved is brought, and it is simply a pot.

Gates naturally had a corresponding self-mockery, I respect Seymour Rubinstein very much. He has done everything he can, but I can only involuntarily let him restrain me.

Rubenstein is a master of negotiation. I am just a child in front of him.

In the end, under Rubinstein's plan, IMSAI had the right to use the best operating system and BASIC language at the time, and the cooperation between Gates and IMSAI worsened the relationship between MITS and Microsoft to some extent.

Of course, it is impossible for the King of Shanzhai to rely on these methods to continue to be proud. After Woz's second-generation Apple machine was born, it directly crushed IMSAI.

Seeing the bleak prospects of IMSAI, Rubinstein began to find his own way out, established MicroPro, and brought in his colleague Rob Barnaby to develop WordStar, which became Zerone's current competitor.

Tang Huan quickly made a decision that he had to deal with Rubinstein, the old traitor, otherwise he would face the enemy when WordPerfect came out.

Therefore, at the subsequent Zerone staff meeting, Tang Huan vigorously exaggerated the threat level of WordStar, and ordered the marketing department to pay attention to it, and make a new plan for the matching sales of CGrid and WordEasy as soon as possible, under the double-sided attack of spreadsheets and word processing , Do not believe you can't kill WordStar.

After the meeting, Tang Huan called Simeone to give an opportunity.

Rubenstein's work in IMSAI is considered to be a small achievement. Now that he jumps out to do it alone, he probably learned a lot of copycat skills. We must add copyright notices to our programs.

Simeone nodded, Actually, WordStar also has many obvious shortcomings, such as complex typesetting rules, cumbersome operations, and dozens of shortcut keys. We can address these weaknesses in the product. Fight back.

Hearing Simeone's specific analysis, Tang Huan waved his hands happily, I don't worry if you handle the matter, just do it according to your ideas.

After Simeone left, Tang Huan thought about it for a while, and felt that he should go further and pay a visit to Kildare to form a cooperation. I don't believe that this person can completely let go of being tricked by Rubinstein once.

In fact, even without WordStar jumping out to grab food, Tang Huan still has the idea of ​​going to the digital research company. Since there is a display enhancement card designed by Tang Huan on the Apple computer platform, the functions of CGrid and WoraEary are much more powerful than the CP/M version of the program. He wants to discuss with Kildare to see if it can be implemented at the operating system level. On the other hand, it provides a certain degree of coordination and enhancement.

Moreover, according to Tang Huan's vision, the current personal computer software market should be stabilized in a three-point situation. The operating system is CP/M of Kildare and Digital Research Corporation, and the programming tool is BASIC of Gates and Microsoft. The application software is the office software of Tang Huan and Zerone.

CGrid, which is the dominant player in the market, gave Tang Huan a taste of the big sweetness, so Tang Huan became more and more determined that it is only possible to do business through partnership and monopoly.

It's a pity that Gates' attitude is a little unclear, and it depends on whether Kildare can make his wish come true.

...

Although somewhat reluctant, Celine's summer dream trip still ended as scheduled, and she had to return to Canada.

When sending little loli to the plane, seeing that she was still depressed, Tang Huan promised again, I'll let your brother bring you over to play after your school holiday.

Don, don't forget about me. Celine warned worriedly.

Tang Huan suppressed a smile and nodded, and told Brother Xi Lin who was also reluctant to leave, and the two sides bid farewell.

Celine, a little wit, had already helped Tang Huan get the contact information of Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster, but only found out through the phone that the former had returned to New York, while the latter was still staying in San Francisco.

So, Tang Huan asked this girl who will win two Oscars before the age of 30, and found a high-end coffee shop, sat opposite each other, talked about art, life, and friendship.

His parents divorced before Foster was born. There are two older sisters and one older brother. After her mother Evelyn was abandoned by her husband, she became a film producer in order to raise her four children. And so far, 17-year-old Foster has performed in more than 40 movies or TV shows.

With such a wealth of experience, Foster appears very independent and full of personality. In other words, this young girl is not easy to be fooled, which can be seen from her clean attire and straightforward speech.

Did you get my contact information from Celine? It seems to be a conspiracy. Foster said unceremoniously.

Not at all. When I was sending Celine back to Canada, I accidentally glanced at the phone numbers of you and Brooke Shields, and I remembered them in my heart.

Foster snorted, with a look of faith on his face.

Tang Huan shrugged, took a novel brought by Foster, casually flipped through a page, glanced at it, then put the book back in front of Foster, and recited it.

Foster snorted, and looked Tang Huan up and down in surprise, I didn't expect you to have such a skill, don't all Orientals know magic?

It's just that my memory is better. Tang Huan pointed to his head, Don't forget what I do, the invention and creation of computer products, and I come into contact with a lot of boring data every day. Poor memory is not enough.

Foster nodded his head, agreeing with Tang Huan's statement, and got his contact information by accident.

After that, the atmosphere of the conversation between the two became more harmonious.

After being a child star for so many years, it's time for a transformation. I heard that this process is full of many uncertainties. Many talented young actors in Hollywood history have lost their stars because of this. Tang Huan picked one An opportune moment to shift the conversation to a thorny issue Foster must now face.

The girl didn't evade, It's true, so I plan to go to university next year to enrich myself.

It's a good idea, but if you don't appear in the newspapers in your circle for a month, you're in danger of being completely forgotten. Will your mother agree?

Foster rolled his eyes, I don't care, I'm already tired of my current life.

Tang Huan smiled and said nothing, it seems that Foster is in the original life track.

No matter how independent Foster thought, but after letting go of his vigilance, he couldn't stand the bombardment of the many memories in Tang Huan's mind, and unconsciously he had a feeling of admiration for the madman's erudition.

When parting, Tang Huan personally sent Foster out of the coffee shop, and the distance between the girl and him was obviously shortened to the extent that only good friends can have.